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Tuesday, 30 September 2014

If you are wondering what happened to the article I posted 3 years ago, you want to know. I revamped and upgraded if you get the comparisons of the aspects when you find it's better, good or a tie. If you watched both TITAN A.E. (click here) and TREASURE PLANET (click here), you might notice the fact that they are very similar to each other. Both movies are animated features whose main character is a teenage boy who disrespects authority, lost his dad when he was young and would find something that will change his life forever. Both Cale and James found father figures in Korso & Silver who both inspire the boys and gave them self-confidence. Both Korso and Silver had ulterior motives and were actually using the boys for selfish reasons, but they do have a change of heart near the end of the movie when they feel responsible for the boys and by doing so save their lives. Unfortunately, both movies bombed at the box office and nearly ruined the 2D animation business financially meaning that neither one of them grossed. First was TITAN A.E. which is because people were unsure whether it's intended for teenagers or older science fiction fans while TREASURE PLANET for unknown reasons presumably similar, competition or that everyone was more interested in fantasy films than sci-fi.

Now let the match begin!

Round 1: Characterisations

The first difference about TITAN A.E. and TREASURE PLANET, the characterisations are easy to find in both pictures. Let's start off with the two male leads who have daddy issues, Cale Tucker for an example, has been left by his father at 5 years of age just to quickly save the Titan ship into outer space from the Drej and before Earth meets its explosive demise. Raised by a friend then suffers from discrimination and gets picked on by other alien species for the result of his race being homeless drifters. Jim Hawkins on the other hand also has his background too, his dad left him when he was 12 for no good reason and singularly raised by his mother who yet tries so hard to put her son in comfort and keep him out of his troubled behaviour. For the paternal figures, Joseph Korso is of-course turns Cale from being so stubborn and never turn his back on him until the film's second half for it had showed us that he is actually working for the alien menace. Then he redeems himself near the end and thank god he regained his hope to save humanity's last relic.

John Silver unlike Korso is a pirate who isn't hired by an alien race and is only motivated by greed when he seeks Treasure Planet, only cares for Jim to keep him off from discovering the mutiny and so he did after their short-lived bond. In the end, Silver firmly gives up the treasure and makes the decision to save Jim of his life without sacrificing himself at the cost of his own. Both films have supporting villains in Preed and Scroop who meet their demise for their treachery, one in the first movie who not only betrays Cale and his love interest for the Drej but also Korso, his superior and other traitor. The second, Scroop although not quite as backstabbing as the one we saw in TITAN, he still has his motives and never betrays Silver at the last step of his plan. He only does the threatening parts on him or question about his mutiny. That provesPreed from TITAN A.E. as the winner, only that he is slightly more treacherous and devious than the latter.

Thoroughly in two at each feature, they all had other characters to help or antagonize the hero. First at TREASURE PLANET, it had some of the likeable supporting leads save for the robot B.E.N who is an okay character but would have gotten a different personality instead of a loudmouth shown in the movie's halfway. At least he's not really aggravating as Jar Jar of Star Wars. The verdict, it's TITAN A.E. and it has a hunch of characters of having mature personalities and better developed.

Winner - TITAN A.E.

Round 2: Writing

At first, I couldn't figure out to for which is a better movie of its quality of writing and structure, now for TITAN A.E. it has a sharp-eye of humour and wit thanks to one of its writers, the legendary Joss Whedon, it's also traced of twists of which few scenes reveal like the one Korso is actually turning humanity's back in the first place. Unfortunately, there are some glaring holes that are featured in the plot. Perhaps the most noticeable is why did the Drej want to destroy Earth when they are afraid of what humanity might become. I will have to nominate TREASURE PLANET in terms of its story and all because there is not much more noticeable of these plot deficits and it's Disney's finest to craft a less-holed intriguing plot.

Winner - TREASURE PLANET

Round 3: Setting

Both TITAN A.E. and TREASURE PLANET involved space travel but set in two different settings, one is the dark and post-apocalyptic future of where Earth is destroyed. The other is an alternate universe where in the reality of space is now breathable and spaceships are modelled like 16th century galleons made with a blend of technology and wood. The feel of TREASURE PLANET is more like a science fantasy genre and nothing is very profound to Disney to craft imagination than Miyasaki did for anime.

Winner - TREASURE PLANET

Round 4: Voice Acting

If there is one thing that a cartoon should not be silent is the voice synchronisation. Together in TITAN A.E. and TREASURE PLANET, both of those features had a range of assembled celebrity talents like Bill Pullman, Martin Short, Drew Barrymore, John Leguizamo, David Hyde Pierce, Ron Perlman and the list goes on. First, we have the standouts here on TITAN are Matt Damon and Nathan Lane, while in TREASURE we have Joseph Gordon Levitt, Brian Murray and Emma Thompson. I have no question that there could be no way that two of each cast members are tied together instead of just one. Well splendid choice I given!

Winner - Tied

Round 5: Animation/Visuals

Both TITAN A.E. and TREASURE PLANET are present when it both combined 2D and 3D animation together and it is animated by the best crew from the two studios. In the hand drawn format, the latter is preoccupied by Disney and seems very good but sometimes the minor characters are merely based on the studio's style to appeal only young children. Only TITAN A.E. succeeds to be well-drawn complex that's because the character facial structure are of a signature style created by the team of Don Bluth. For at the least they succeeded animating the aliens and human to make it truly expressive.

If we're done with the traditional hand-drawn seen in these two movies, what about the CGI enhanced visuals and some of the backgrounds on the backlot. TITAN A.E. maybe was perfect in most of the quality of the visuals except the ending for some parts which are quite unfinished and the directors seemed to be unhappy of that. It won't help that one of the effects companies worked on TITAN A.E. was the studio that later became 20th Century Fox's animated unit. The effects of TREASURE however were provided from Disney's in-house animation department through the magic of the Deep Canvas software. Succeeded without succumbing to age in time to beat TITAN once and for all that sometimes each of its animation beat out the rest.

Winner - TITAN A.E. - 2D Animation

Winner - TREASURE PLANET - 3D Animation

Round 6: Action

All of these two movies are maybe known for their sci-fi and futuristic settings, they have all of their action sequences that really got some of the older audiences hyped and excited for the jumpy impact. In TREASURE, there's hardly any violence in the picture at all despite consisting of some action and since this is a kid's movie. When in comparison to TITAN A.E., the movie came out before TREASURE had more exhilarating action and a lot of violence, explicitly shown when the character kills another by breaking its neck and some scenes show a lot ofbleeding. Consider of what two movies share the principle of a PG rating classification, it doesn't matter. One animated movie is more action-oriented has got to be TITAN by far.

Winner - TITAN A.E.

Round 7: Music

The music from the two films are known for having original post-grunge and hard rock type songs by various artists aiming only at teens and adults. While the two film scores are mixed together with the tunes are composed by professional and underrated music artists. Eventually, TITAN A.E. would have needed less alternative rock songs as to so not undermine Graeme Revell's unsung score. TREASURE PLANET had only two songs and lessened by James Newton Howard's massive arrangements. I have decided to pick TREASURE PLANET that only supersede TITAN A.E.'s complicated array of both kinds of music. You are much easier to track down an out-of-print soundtrack out of a car boot sale or eBay.

Winner - TREASURE PLANET

Despite being the movies I loved and became rational cult favorites. Which movie is way better, the verdict by an unanimous decision goes to the heavy weight champion of the world! TREASURE PLANET all-because it had great story-writing and is more imaginative than the first one. The true cult status would lead Disney to leave their regrets behind and package the movie under their engrossing Diamond Editions and release it on Blu-Ray and DVD or more probably a theatrical re-release. So which one you will decide the more that you vote or can it be both?

After watching and reviewing STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (click here), I've got myself an idea that I would review one of the old and best Trek films THE WRATH OF KHAN. In its prominent history of 1982, the sequel only restored the franchise's nobility to its fans after its predecessor failed to live to their high expectations. The Trekkies are relished back with the turbulent action and a change of pace, something that the first movie did not have. The film is polished with the story arc that ends with the fourth instalment and the writing team are still creating new stuff in the eye to originate. These elements were not shown in the original program and not belonging in the creator's vision. One of these ideas would soon be later used in a similar way on the animated non-Trek movie TITAN A.E. (click here).

Several moments of the original second instalment contained a lot of memorability and one that pivotal is arguably cheesy and emotional. These few iconic scenes include Kirk shouting Khan's name for the unexpected and Spock's notorious death scene. Most of the old Enterprise crew of William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy and others are present on the main cast of this astounding sequel. I find Richard Montablan to be performing great as the original Khan, even though he wasn't as compelling and neither fluent in a Brit accent. I still prefer the new one as being more brutal and vengeful and played terrifically by Benedict Cumberbatch.

I guess I thought about INTO DARKNESS that it was just a near repeat of KHAN, let alone director J.J. Abrams to rehash few of these ideas into the plot-line. But in the old movie, it's very enjoyable to non-Trekkies alike who are quick of not having seen it. So I advise you to watch it in your time.

Presenting the audience of a very surreal, dark and mystical world in 2004's mad imperfection of a film called THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK. This movie was filmed four years after PITCH BLACK and nine years before RIDDICK. I'm not willing to say it was a great sci-fi film, I'm find it more as an okay and below satisfying film in my expectations. Regardless that I never saw the movie on its director's cut or either the first one PITCH BLACK, it was a disappointing flop of the box office. There was also a director's cut version released a year later, but unfortunately this did not change the general unsatisfied consensus of Riddick fans.

It's hard to tell why Vin Diesel wanted Dame Judi Dench in one of the supporting lead roles. We know her for sure as the authoritative figure of MI6 known as M in the series of 007. It is said the action star had sent her a bouquet of flowers to get her to star in the secondary role. Karl Urban like I say was an actor that I never was a fan of his films, he managed to well play one of the villainous characters in an untimely decent role.

Good as it almost gets in THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK fair at best, in comparison it's no better movie than the third instalment itself.

HOT FUZZ mixes themes of buddy cop films and action elements with comedy, the movie pushes the envelope to parody every action cliché known to action film lovers and fill it up with its witty and gag-steamed humour. Perhaps it is known as one of the three movies of the Cornetto trilogy which refers to a box set of the three British comedy hits each featuring the same duo of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. It delivers a well-bloated combination of scriptwriting and action; some of the themes of the storyline are rather grim and dark. In addition to this, there was a frequent content of violence, gore and swearing, this movie is packed with many thrills and twists that compliment the plot.Pegg and Frost have proven their worth as the two top professional players in their field of British satirical comedy, seeing how that this is their second time they've replenished the winning formula which worked well in their previous film. I greatly admired the two of them together since PAUL and they've already established themselves in fame since SHAUN OF THE DEAD. Alas, let us not forget the containment of British actors that were in the major supporting leads and cameos such as James Bond's Timothy Dalton, Jim Broadbent, Martin Freeman and Bill Nighy.

I still have not watched SHAUN........ or THE WORLD'S END, but I am enthusiastic to watch these movies, I will be able to give my opinion of them. The movie has always been rich with elements of laughter and gun-blazing violence. To all you mature viewers over the age of 15, must be extremely cautioned that if you watch HOT FUZZ, it does contain violent themes and extreme coarse language.

The final battle for Middle-earth begins. Frodo and
Sam, led by Gollum,
continue their dangerous
mission toward the fires of
Mount Doom in order to
destroy the One Ring.
Aragorn struggles to fulfil
his legacy as he leads his
outnumbered followers
against the Dark Lord
Sauron, so that the Ring-
bearer may complete his
quest.

In his moment of triumph, Peter Jackson has finally finished the original chronicles of LOTR by making everyone's favourite THE RETURN OF THE KING. Quite accurately, it remains as the second film sequel to win the Best Picture Oscar and in history it broke the world records for that. It almost ran longer than the classic movies directed by David Lean. The film pushed the limits in every aspect of the word achieving cinematic magic on the screen, so perfectly orchestrated and managing to craft a grand epic mega blockbuster hit. Might Jackson have spent too much of his time and resources to extend the film budget. The answer is no, as all of his hard work was paid off in the end, as he earned the Best Picture Oscar. He also spent mass amounts of the money to do the visualising and location scouting in both the islands of NZ to film the big finale of J. R. R. Tolkien's vision. That Peter Jackson we knew is an actually a visionary like George Lucas when he was creating Star Wars for the public display.

Almost everyone thought THE RETURN OF THE KING was one of the huge tapestries to the motion picture industry. In fact, the entire movie is great but with the exception of the ending as I feel they should have concluded with a fade to black shot at the point where Frodo gets on the boat with Gandalf and the elves at the end. Instead that they had to include a unnecessary scene of Sam going back to shire. This should have been left in the cutting room archive. When years ago, I watched the last HARRY POTTER movie (click here) for the second time, a few people I knew thought its ending showed no gradual sense. My truer words describe that it's exactly the opposite to my opinion of TROTK's overstretched ending. There's nothing about RETURN OF THE KING than having the precious original cast featured together for a magical mystery tour. Main leading actors featured are Elijah Wood, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Astin, Andy Serkis and Ian McKellen. I still think Orlando Bloom was the best actor of the movie.

I'm going to re-watch THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RINGS and THE TWO TOWERS, maybe sometime soon I will post a re-review on either one or both of these movies. THE RETURN OF THE KING is as good as a fantasy movie can possibly get, but would have been patterned stronger to edit the part out of the closing scene. I highly recommend watching this movie if you have not seen it.

Kiel suffers from a condition of acromegaly which shows his facial displays and an intimidating stature heighten about 7 feet, 1.5 inches tall in centimetres 127. His common gigantic appearance is what got others to cast him in multiple performances involving giants, monsters, etc. Kiel was once a nightclub bouncer and a cemetery plot salesman when he moved to television about 1960 such as an episode of 'The Twilight Zone' and in 1962, went to the movies whilst continuing to make several early TV appearances before becoming a night school math teacher. In 1965, after two years he returned to acting roles in shows like The Wild, Wild West when playing as a lethal minion to an evil mad scientist. Kiel continued to do more extensive appearances in notable shows as 'I Dream of Jeannie', 'Gilligan's Island', 'The Monkees', 'Starsky & Hutch', etc. Richard was phoned by Albert R. Broccoli the producer of the James Bond movies when he assigned him to be in the series tenth instalment'The Spy Who Loved Me' and thus the character of Jaws is created. This infamous Bond henchman of lethal jaws was a result of Richard's portrayal and appearance, the popularity within the character helped the actor to return in 'Moonraker'. He also guest-starred the character whilst in cameo appearances in few of the non-Bond features.
In 1992, Kiel ended up in a car accident that wounded his head and triggered the loss of control to his balance. Because of this, Richard had to use a cane to help him walk as it was seen in one of the supporting parts in Happy Gilmore for which he was known as the main hero's former boss and big fan, Mr. Larson. We all going to miss you, big guy ;-(

Plot Summary
Jarrod and Elaine's trip to
L.A. was supposed to be
a fun weekend away to
visit Jarrod's best friend,Terry. But when they are
awakened by mysterious
blue lights raining down
over the city skyline, their
weekend away quickly
turns into a nightmare.

As day breaks, the full
extent of the catastrophe
becomes clear. Tankers,
drones and hydra-like
machines are invading the
city. The human race facesannihilation as thousands
of terrified people are
sucked up into the alien
ships. Inescapable and
seemingly indestructible,
it will take every survival
instinct they have to elude
capture.

ReviewAn unnecessary movie that nobody in their right mind would purchase or bother watching it for the weekend. The action-packed terrorising sci-fi thriller SKYLINE disappoints all the sci-fi viewers. The film attempts to create a stimulating and exiting alien invasion theme, but the finishing results turns out to be a cheesy and mediocre flop. I find it to be a very boring and shallow flick, I regard myself as a true sci-fi film lover so when it comes to me watching a new sci-fi film, I usually have high expectations and I am sorry to say, this film did not even come close to my expectations. Especially seeing the ending that I felt unresolved and left you wondering who had won the battle anyway? The characters were completely non-organic and so of cheaply designed that it was impossible to try to immerse the viewer in the fictitious alien world. They usually don't know how to be human and if performing is not the only big obstacle, I don't know what that is. There are no more various problems to discuss this cold film in a certain way, next there is the good parts of the film. The aliens are similar to those in
WAR OF THE WORLDS except that they have an organic brain but the rest I think is inside of their machinery. I love the visual effects, the aliens and starship truly designed of that render comes across as monstrous or wildly exotic.

SKYLINE is conspicuously lacking a soul of its visualised distinct and to think, two brothers of effects maestros who know nothing about directing this film. It's otherwise known as SKYFALL and I'm not referring about the one film in the Bond series (click here) PERIOD!

Tuesday, 2 September 2014

Hey, it's Film Guru Lad, I was so thrilled when everyone had gotten to notice that on to the right, you'll see the new category I've added on the label menu of which some of the action movies are part of the James Bond collection aptly titled the same name as the character. This was because of the recent Bond film 'You Only Live Twice', I had now summarised. All the Bond film reviews are now newly labelled in this classification. I've also popped in to make more updates on two of my less-viewable review posts of three well-known movies from director Chris Nolan that are still my favourites'The Dark Knight', its sequel 'The Dark Knight Rises' and the mind-boggling 'Inception'. Now, why so serious that I didn't do more reviewing on some of the films Chris had done, prior to the upcoming release of his latest feature 'Interstellar'. I didn't watch much three of those films when I'm too busy doing on other features. I've also made changes to re-update my review of 'The Lego Movie', unless you already looked here at first. Also in a mere mentioning, I now relabelled and fixed 'Hugo' from the category of drama to the family section.

I will return to publish 'Skyline' this Monday at September 8th, don't forget to feed me some feedback when I least expect it or if you don't know how. As one character of a villain said it once on two films of 'TRON' when ending this message, END OF LINE...

Monday, 1 September 2014

Runtime: 106 minutesBudget: $10,300.000 Box Office Gross: $111,600,000 (Worldwide)Plot SummaryAgent 007 and the Japanese secret service ninja force must find and stop the true culprit of a series of space-jackings before nuclear war
is provoked.

Here we are, after the Bond set taking a two year break, finally, I decided to treat fans to the long-awaited sequel. This one is supposedly the end to Sean Connery's tenure as the famed sophisticated spy 007 until 71. Nothing is more simpler in YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE, with a three course serving of action for entre' dinner and desert. This movie sets a good pace that keeps the viewers entertained from start to finish with a good balance of action unlike THUNDERBALL (click here) which is overdone. The tight story was done by Roald Dahl when he was not working on his books for younger children. I'm quite surprised the film's plot never got cheesy or trashy, perhaps Dahl didn't use any of his known usual themes to make the storyline utterly incomprehensible. I loathe Ernst Stravo Blofeld as he's always the villain that survives from Bond, the other known actor of the film Donald Pleasence plays fittingly well as the duplicitous head of SPECTRE.

Twice as it goes with all that sense and twice how it supplies the danger and presented audiences with sheer excitement. The fifth Bond film nonetheless proves evidently as a great essential addition to the film catalogue, I wasn't expecting it would be on the same ranking level as the other Connery features. I'll continue to review the series as I do it in fruition for ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE which I plan to review next.